Australia’s Drunken Birds Are Getting Hangovers

Australians have always had a reputation for loving alcohol – and it seems our animals love getting in on the act too.

Rainbow lorikeets have often been found stumbling around, falling off their perches and showing signs similar to human drunkenness.

“They act quite like a drunken person would. They stumble around and are very uncoordinated,” says Lisa Hansen, a veterinary surgeon at the Ark Animal Hospital in the Northern Territory.

This isn’t a new phenomenon, however. Aussies have come to expect the seemingly inebriated parrots each year at the end of Darwin’s wet season, which typically lasts between November and May.

The only drunks we saw were rainbow lorikeets, a noisy flock of them, stoned on the overripe and fermenting fruit scattered beneath the huge mango tree that shaded the homestead at Vanrook Station” noted National Geographic writer Roff Smith.

“They chattered incessantly and chased their reflections into windows. Humans, it seems, aren’t the only creatures around here susceptible to a touch of mango madness.”

The birds appear to suffer from headaches, disorientation, and general lethargy (sounds awfully like hangover symptoms) after they have been treated. And what is their treatment?